According to cryptocurrency acceptance monitoring resource CoinMap, the number of venues accepting Bitcoin is up 702% since December of 2013. This growth is heavily represented by those areas where the market capitalization was already strong. As we look at areas in South America, like Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador, those are the strongest growth areas on the continent. Those areas have experienced quite a bit of social and government upheaval during that period. It makes sense that Bitcoin(BTC) would be a store of wealth when those country’s currency are in freefall.

As per the graphic provided by CoinMap, we see the total number of Bitcoin friendly businesses go from 1789 in 2013 to 14,113 in 2018, a dramatic rise. And since December 31st 2018, there have been another 200 venues that now accept BTC. Other areas of strong growth for BTC acceptance are central Europe, the UK, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US.

Looking at the world in general, areas like Africa, the Middle East and large areas of China show much lower levels of acceptance. Whether it is entrepreneurs, citizens or governments, there are definitely opportunities to not only find business opportunities but to make use of this technology to liberate people. When we remove big banks and big businesses from the equation, we often end up removing big barriers to innovation, empower people and create a better store of wealth. When we allow banks and governments to control our money supply, we allow them to siphon off wealth for themselves, often with unethical practices.

One of the biggest takeaways though, is that there is no correlation to adoption in the CoinMap figure and this is the biggest opportunity. As we have seen by things like the BAKKT and Microsoft partnership, real world adoption is what is going to drive this technology forward by leaps and bounds. When more and more of these business relationships pile up, Bitcoin acceptance will rise dramatically.